Senator Tillis Urges Trump to Replace Hegseth Over Pentagon Turnover

Sen. Thom Tillis became the most prominent Republican to publicly demand that President Donald Trump remove Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, citing a pattern of senior departures and what he described as incompetent management of the military. The North Carolina Republican posted his remarks on Wednesday, two days after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned following reported clashes with Hegseth over the direction of the department.

Tillis wrote that he had never seen such inept leadership of service members and accused Hegseth of favoring culture-war priorities over the retention of experienced officers. He urged Trump to appoint a successor who would empower rather than sideline military talent. The statement marks an escalation in Republican criticism at a moment when the United States remains engaged in a prolonged conflict with Iran.

Hegseth, a former Fox News commentator and Army National Guard major, entered the role with less senior government or military leadership experience than any previous defense secretary. Since taking office he has overseen the departure of nearly two dozen generals, admirals and senior civilian officials, many of them through early retirements or outright dismissals after disagreements with the secretary. The most recent exit, Driscoll's, followed months of friction over personnel and policy decisions.

Former Trump communications director Mike Dubke told CNN that the White House is unlikely to act until the consequences become impossible to ignore. He noted that recruitment numbers have improved and the military met its fiscal-year targets, with enlistment reaching a 15-year high. Yet Dubke argued those gains mask deeper damage to institutional capacity. He predicted that only a significant operational failure would prompt Trump to conclude that Hegseth is no longer the right leader, and he warned that restoring lost expertise could take considerable time once talent has left.

The stakes are sharpened by the ongoing war with Iran, now in its seventh month. Sustained combat operations place added strain on force management, logistics and command continuity. Analysts inside and outside government have pointed to the risks of rapid turnover at senior levels during an active conflict, when institutional knowledge and steady relationships with allies matter most. Tillis's intervention reflects a growing view among some Republicans that the personnel turbulence has moved beyond routine transition frictions into a structural problem for readiness.

Hegseth's defenders maintain that his focus on lethality, recruitment and cultural issues aligns with the administration's priorities and that early results on enlistment validate the approach. Critics counter that the emphasis on ideological alignment has come at the expense of experienced officers whose departures reduce the bench of leaders available for complex operations. The tension between those perspectives now sits at the center of internal Republican debate over Pentagon leadership.

For Trump, replacing Hegseth would require acknowledging that the current arrangement carries mounting costs. Tillis's public call increases the pressure, yet the president's reluctance to change course absent a clear crisis suggests the threshold for action remains high. Whether recruitment gains can offset the loss of senior expertise will be tested in the months ahead as the Iran conflict continues.